Editor’s note: Today’s guest author is Jennifer LaFleur, senior editor for data journalism at The Center for Investigative Reporting In 1952, Walter Cronkite predicted the US Presidential election for his readers before the poll closed using an analysis of election results on one of our first mainframe computers. Walter’s analysis predicted the election for Dwight Eisenhower, despite polling that said Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson would win. Today, spreadsheets and databases are commonplace in newsrooms across industry.The tools used to analyze data and to make it available online are cheaper, faster and more powerful. But there continue to be significant challenges that prevent journalists from harnessing this data. Accessing information from governments and institutions remains a significant hurdle for newsrooms in Canada and the US. And when data does become available, journalists still need the tools to unlock the stories which are important to the public.

TechRaking via Hangout with Richard Gingras, the Head of News and Social Products at Google

Over the next two days, the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), The Canadian Press and Google Canada, are hosting a conference and hands-on learning session called TechRaking Toronto: Digging the News. While Google and the CIR have hosted similar events in the U.S. in the past, we are excited to bring this expertise to Canada for the first time. Designed for journalists, digital news desks, and broadcasters, this two-day event will explore innovative uses of data in the newsroom and the most recent tools of the trade for digital production and research. We will be joined by nearly 75 Canadian journalists, students and design experts who will participate in sessions exploring best practices to produce groundbreaking investigations. Attendees will be participating in a data journalism design sprint to collaborate on potential projects – one of which will be selected to receive a development grant from a local app developer, The Working Group, to bring their idea to reality. Our hope is that TechRaking: Digging the News provides a forum for reporters to tap into the enormous potential of data, and to uncover the tools necessary for that essential pillar of our democracy: great journalism. Posted by Jennifer LaFleur

Superheroes, cliff divers, fearless reporters or today's biggest hits —whatever you like to watch, Chromecast makes it easy to bring it from a phone, tablet, or laptop to the biggest screen in your house: the TV. Since announcing Chromecast in the U.S., we’ve grown to include more of your favorite apps and websites. Those numbers will to grow, and we want to bring Chromecast to more people around the world. Today, we are pleased to announce that Chromecast is now available in Canada, and 10 countries -- Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK.

In addition to your favorite apps like YouTube, Google Play Movies, Netflix, Songza and VEVO, and we are adding new content all the time. So instead of huddling around your laptop to watch your favourite movies, or videos you can cast it, sit back, and watch together on the big screen.

Chromecast takes just a few minutes to set up and is really easy to use. Once installed, you can use your phone, tablet, or laptop to browse and cast content to your TV. You can use your device to play and pause what you’re watching or adjust the volume on the music you’re streaming.

Unlike other streaming solutions, Chromecast allows you to multitask, so you can send an email or update your social networks while watching what’s on your TV screen. It works across lots of platforms too -- Android tablets and smartphones, iPads, iPhones, Chrome for Mac and Windows, and many Chromebooks.

Chromecast will keep getting better. We recently opened up Chromecast to developers, and in a few short weeks more than 3,000 developers worldwide have signed up to bring their apps and websites to Chromecast. You’ll soon have more TV shows, movies, videos, sports, music and games to choose from. Stay up-to-date on the latest apps that work with Chromecast at chromecast.com/apps.

Editor's Note: Cross-posted from the Official Google BlogToday, residents of Vancouver, Canada, will notice a new addition to their scenic waterfront: an interactive artwork on one of the largest textile sculptures ever. The piece, entitled Unnumbered Sparks, is a collaboration between artist Janet Echelman and Google Creative Director Aaron Koblin, as part of TED’s 30th annual conference.

Echelman is known for building sculptures that respond to the forces of nature—wind, water and light—and this project is no exception. Made from ultralight fibers, the sculpture soars from the roof of a skyscraper over the water and walkways near the Vancouver Convention Center (site map). As visitors collaborate via mobile devices, they create colors and ripples that move over its surface.

Photo by Ema Peter

What's not obvious to the public is when you look at the sculpture, you're actually looking at a web browser. The interactive lighting is actually one giant Chrome window, stretched across the 300-foot long sculpture with the help of five high-definition projectors. To interact, visitors open a website using Chrome or other modern mobile browser on their smartphone or tablet. After selecting a color, they use their fingers to trace paths along the surface of their device, which are then projected onto the sculpture in real-time as colorful beams of light. The result is a crowd-controlled visual experiment on a giant, floating canvas.

Photo by Ema Peter

Watch this short documentary to get a quick look at the work involved in creating this project:Art and technology are continuously evolving together, and we hope that this project showcases the opportunity for mobile devices and the web to play a part in that evolution. We all carry devices in our pockets that have the power to connect with people around the world, but rarely do we get a chance to use this incredible power to connect and create with the people standing next to us. With Unnumbered Sparks, we hope to turn strangers into collaborators, working together to create a single piece of art on this amazing canvas.

For the fourth year, TED’s Ads Worth Spreading and YouTube are partnering to celebrate advertising that goes beyond a simple commercial message. Each year, TED speakers and up-and-comers from the advertising industry select 10 ads that tell a story and forge a connection with their audiences, prompting them to share that story with friends and family around the world.

This year, we’ve added a new component that focuses on identifying the ad submissions that are “spreading” on YouTube. We passed the nominees through our YouTube Ads Leaderboard algorithm to determine which of these ads have already caught on with the YouTube community.